Creations Past
by Zero9grl
Summary: Everyone knows of the creation who set into motion the events of FF9, but do they know him? Terra called him Project Pandemonium, but the scientists called him Garland. Before Zidane, Kuja, the attempt to assimilate Gaia, there was hope for Terra.
1. Prologue: Failure

Note: All characters, places, ect. belong to Square Enix.

Now that that's out of the way, this is just an idea I came up with while reading a story about Kuja. Everyone always hates Garland (okay, so they have a good reason). After looking around, I realized there were no stories with Garland as the main character (at least that I could find. If you know one, I'd certainly appreciate a link to it). So, I decided to fill the void. Before there was a Third, a Second or a First, there had to be a Creator. But who was the Creator's Creator?

* * *

Creations Past

_Prologue: Failure_

We were once so very good friends. I just wanted it to be that way again…

I was created, they were created, but we weren't the same.

I was the child of society; they were the saviors of a grave.

Where my peers taught me games and shared their hopes, their peers shunned and ostracized them.

I went about this all wrong. I only wanted to do what was best, to do what I was created to do. I let failed them and the hatred between us all sometimes makes me cringe inside.

Garland, Caretaker of Terra. Garland, Destroyer of Worlds. Garland, a lonely creation who couldn't save his friends.

Maybe that's where I went wrong. It was too personal, right from the start. From the very beginning there was no chance to distance myself, make sure feelings and emotions didn't come into play. This glowing, red stone of a heart was my downfall. I'm not sorry.

* * *

The first thing I remember is her face. Heart-shaped and rosy with her curly hair springing from its pins to cascade like art. That face, with its button nose and twinkling blue eyes, seemed like God. So sweet, so innocent and infinitely understanding. Even when it was pressed up against the glass making faces. 

"Hey! He's awake!" God smiled at me and I tried to return the look in kind. "How are you feeling little guy? He's so adorable! Hey! Hey! Kuja! Look! He's smiling! Awwww!"

She looked so happy that it made me happy just to watch her face radiate her joy. She turned to look at something beyond my sight and her curls flew in heavenly acrobatics. She was giving voice to a bubbly sound, pure and ringing. I immediately loved that sound and echoed it in my mind like a prayer.

"Nighty-night little fella'," a different, deeper voice intoned and the world went dark, but I could still hear God's voice as I passed into sleep. God's voice that laughed and God's face that smiled. God who understood and loved her creations so well.

It wasn't until much later that I found out she wasn't God. She was a scientist. And her name was Mikoto.

Mikoto Disdemona, born Toko Clance. Twenty-seven, she worked at the research facility, Bran Bal. Before she was recruited to work on Project Pandemonium, she studied the moon and had hypothesized that it could sustain life. A well-known and highly respected scientist, she was always pushing things to the limit, trying to make one last discovery, create one more miracle. She was a firm disbeliever in the word impossible.

There were others in Project Pandemonium, but I didn't meet them until later. Four scientists in all worked on it, though there were many other scientists at Bran Bal. Each was trying to find a way to save Terra, a world that was slowly dying. Everyone was positive though, confident that a solution would be found. It wasn't until much later that they became a desperate society.


	2. One: Science

Note: All characters, places, ect. belong to Square Enix.

Short chapters, yes, for now.

* * *

_One: Science_

Life for me began with that one moment where I met Mikoto, but life for Project Pandemonium did not truly begin until I met him.

The second time I awoke it was to that deep voice I had heard before. "Can you wake up?" It called and my eyes opened, mind turning on, having been waiting for the command 'wake up'. That's when I first saw him.

He was far more reserved than God. He did not press up to the glass separating us, but sat on a stool with a clip board and a pen. He moved the pen back and forth before me and I followed it with my eyes; he wrote something down on the clip board.

He was different from God. Where God was bright and lively, he was calm and contained a quieter, softer joy. The first thing about him that absorbed my attention was not his face like God's, but his hands. Long fingers, bold knuckles, he held the clip board and pen delicately, causing me to think they might break in his touch. There was a balance and poise to his hands that made me think they could perform miracles.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked me, pen ready to write. I took in my limited view, that of him, his stool, a bare stone floor and behind it all a light blue wall. None of it was familiar to me, nothing was familiar. "No," I told him, my throat producing noise.

He began to scribble on the clip board again. "Do you know who you are?" He asked and I answered no again. "What do you know?" He questioned and I thought about my few experiences.

"I know God," I told him and he leaned forward, intrigued. "God?" He inquired, pen stopping in its motions.

"Yes," I replied, thinking of God who laughed and smiled. "What does God look like?" He questioned and I described God, her curls and blue eyes, smile and happy noises. He grinned slightly, amused, and sat back again, writing once more. "God eh?" He mused to himself and gave a small chuckle, a noise like God's, but not as vibrant. "Mikoto'll get a kick out of that."

"Who are you?" I questioned in the silence of his writing and he stopped again, looking at me. His grin broadened and he ran a hand through his hair self-consciously, pulling strands out of his ponytail. "I'm a scientist," he replied. "I do science." He held up the clipboard for me to see and I studied the curves of his writing. The words were observations of me, about my reactions and replies. He was interested in the fact that I had followed the pen, underlining the words "eye coordination".

I was curious. Was that writing really about me? The notion made me seem important. "Am I important, Science?" I asked and his grin slowly grew into a smile, smaller than God's, softer, gentler, and deeper, rarer. "Yes, you are very important," he told me, explaining that without me something called "Project Pandemonium" was lost.

"What is Project Pandemonium?" I wanted to know. His face returned to its earlier, thoughtful, calm expression. "Salvation," Science told me and the word haunted me as the world went dark once more. The word was something large, beyond my comprehension, but I could already understand it was important to Science.

Later I learned that his name was Kuja Aegis. Unlike Mikoto he had kept his given name, a strange occurrence among scientists who usually chose new names upon entering the field. Also a renowned scientist, he was a legend for his discoveries in the field of humanitarian science, particularly that pertaining to souls. It was he who discovered the cycle of souls and divulged many of its mysteries, including manipulation of souls to scientific and medical purposes. He was methodical and quiet, yet he had the most passion of all of the scientists working on Project Pandemonium.

Bran Bal was full of many radical ideas, but few were as extensive as the plans of Project Pandemonium's four scientists. It was also the project that had the least amount of hope, the idea too radical. Funding was short and there was constant talk of cutting the project from the budget, stopping it and relocating the scientists to other, more likely projects. In the end Terra's citizens were grateful the decision was never made.

I wish I could have saved them all.


End file.
